Lucy to Language

The Benchmark Papers

Edited by R. I. M. Dunbar, Clive Gamble, and J. A. J. Gowlett

Encompasses the output of a major 7-year programme grant from the British Academy

Uniquely multidisciplinary

Discusses new ideas about human cognitive and social evolution

Illustrated throughout

Lucy to Language

The Benchmark Papers

Edited by R. I. M. Dunbar, Clive Gamble, and J. A. J. Gowlett

Description

The concept of the social brain has become a popular topic in the last decade and has generated interest within the research community and contributed to a wide public examination of human culture, nature, mind, and instinct, as well as aspects of social and business organisation. At its core, the hypothesis that our social life drove the dramatic enlargement of our brain, bridges the dimensions of our evolutionary history and our contemporary experience. This has been the focus of a seven-year research project funded by the British Academy, the British Academy Centenary Research Project (otherwise known as the Lucy Project).

The main aim of the Lucy Project has been to explore these two axes in an integrated set of studies whose focus was to link archaeology and, in its broadest sense, evolutionary psychology, which offers powerful, new explanatory insights. This approach redresses the past contribution from archaeology towards the study of evolutionary issues and ties evolutionary psychology into the extensive historical data from the past, allowing us to escape the confined timeframe of the comparatively recent human mind.

In this volume of published an unpublished papers, the contributors explore the question of just what it is that makes us so different, and why and when these uniquely human capacities evolved.

Lucy to Language

The Benchmark Papers

Edited by R. I. M. Dunbar, Clive Gamble, and J. A. J. Gowlett

Table of Contents

Preface Contributors List of Illustrations and Tables Sources I: Background 1. Mind the Gap: or why we aren't just great apes, R.I.M. Dunbar2. The social brain and the shape of the palaeolithic, Clive Gamble, J.A.J. Gowlett and R.I.M. DunbarII: Social Brain and Cognition 3. The social brain hypothesis: an evolutionary perspective on the neurobiology of social behaviour, Susanne Shultz and R.I.M. Dunbar4. Hominin cognitive evolution: identifying patterns and processes in the fossil and archaeological record, Susanne Shultz, Emma Nelson and R.I.M. Dunbar5. The Identity Model: a theory to access visual display and hominin cognition within the Palaeolithic, James Cole6. The longest transition or multiple revolutions? Curves and steps in the record of human origins, J.A.J. GowlettIII: Processes of Social Bonding 7. Relationships and the social brain hypothesis: integrating evolutionary and psychological perspectives, A.J. Sutcliffe, R.I.M. Dunbar, Jens Binder and Holly Arrow8. Close social relationships: an evolutionary perspective, S.B.G. Roberts, Holly Arrow, Julia Lehmann and R.I.M. Dunbar9. The brain opioid theory of social attachment: a review of the evidence, A.J. Machin and R.I.M. DunbarIV: Community, Time and Cohesion 10. Time as an ecological constraint, R.I.M. Dunbar, A.H. Korstjens and Julia Lehmann11. Unravelling the evolutionary function of communities, Julia Lehmann, P.C. Lee and R.I.M. Dunbar12. Fireside chat: the impact of fire on hominin socioecology, R.I.M. Dunbar and J.A.J. Gowlett13. Bridging the bonding gap: the transition from primates to humans, R.I.M. DunbarV: The Social World in Antiquity 14. Evolution of primate social systems: implications for hominin social evolution, Susanne Shultz, Christopher Opie, Emma Nelson, Q.D. Atkinson and R.I.M. Dunbar15. The road to modern humans: time budgets, fission-fusion sociality, kinship and the division of labour in hominin evolution, R.I.M. Dunbar, Julia Lehmann, A.H. Korstjens and J.A.J. Gowlett16. The costs of being a high latitude hominin, Eiluned Pearce, Andy Shuttleworth, M.J. Grove and R.H. Layton17. Communities on the edge of civilisation, Fiona Coward and R.I.M. DunbarVI: Language, Kinship and Culture 18. The elements of design form in Acheulean bifaces: modes, modalities, rules and language, J.A.J. Gowlett19. Why only humans have language, R.I.M. Dunbar20. Social origins: sharing, exchange, kinship, Alan Barnard21. Big brains, small worlds: material culture and the evolution of mind, Fiona Coward and Clive GambleAppendix: Selected Principal Publications of the Lucy Project (2003-2012) Index

Lucy to Language

The Benchmark Papers

Edited by R. I. M. Dunbar, Clive Gamble, and J. A. J. Gowlett

Author Information

Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Magdalen College. His principal research interests focus on the evolution of sociality (with particular reference to primates and humans). He is best known for the social brain hypothesis, the gossip theory of language evolution, and Dunbar's Number (the limit on the number of relationships that we can manage).

Clive Gamble is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Southampton.

John Gowlett is Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at the University of Liverpool.